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xpression; terse; epigrammatic; especially, directed to a particular person or thing. His moral pleases, not his pointed wit. Pope. Pointed arch (Arch.), an arch with a pointed crown. -- Pointed style (Arch.), a name given to that style of architecture in which the pointed arch is the predominant feature; -- more comm…

That which taints or destroys moral purity or health; as, the poison of evil example; the poison of sin. Poison ash. (Bot.) (a) A tree of the genus Amyris (A. balsamifera) found in the West Indies, from the trunk of which a black liquor distills, supposed to have poisonous qualities. (b) The poison sumac (Rhus venenata…

rotection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals.

l, impure, or unclean; to defile; to taint; to soil; to desecrate; -- used of physical or moral defilement. The land was polluted with blood. Ps. cvi. 38 Wickedness . . . hath polluted the whole earth. 2 Esd. xv. 6.

The quality or state of being potent; physical or moral power; inherent strength; energy; ability to effect a purpose; capability; efficacy; influence. "Drugs of potency." Hawthorne. A place of potency and away o' the state. Shak.

Powerful, in an intellectual or moral sense; having great influence; as, potent interest; a potent argument. Cross potent. (Her.) See Illust. (7) of Cross.

apacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power. "One next himself in power, and next in crime." Milton.

Deterioration; degeneracy; corruption; especially, moral crookedness; moral perversion; perverseness; depravity; as, the pravity of human nature. "The pravity of the will." South.

To give serious advice on morals or religion; to discourse in the manner of a preacher.

ruction, or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; esp., a command respecting moral conduct; an injunction; a rule. For precept must be upon precept. Isa. xxviii. 10. No arts are without their precepts. Dryden.

ly defined or stated; definite; exact; nice; not vague or equivocal; as, precise rules of morality. The law in this point is not precise. Bacon. For the hour precise Exacts our parting hence. Milton.

To overpower by stronger or moral power.

of events before they take place; foresight. God's certain prescience of the volitions of moral agents. J. Edwards.

previous restraint or censorship, subject only to punishment for libelous, seditious, or morally pernicious matters. -- Press bed, a bed that may be folded, and inclosed, in a press or closet. Boswell. -- Press of sail, (Naut.), as much sail as the state of the wind will permit.

ay that the principles of religion are merely probable; I have before asserted them to be morally certain. Bp. Wilkins.

candidate's qualifications prior to his ordination, or to his settlement as a pastor. (c) Moral trial; the state of man in the present life, in which he has the opportunity of proving his character, and becoming qualified for a happier state. No [view of human life] seems so reasonable as that which regards it as a sta…

A student in divinity, who, having received certificates of good morals and qualifications from his university, is admitted to several trials by a presbytery, and, on acquitting himself well, is licensed to preach. [Scot.]

Tried virtue or integrity; approved moral excellence; honesty; rectitude; uprightness. "Probity of mind." Pope.

ng profligate; a profligate or very vicious course of life; a state of being abandoned in moral principle and in vice; dissoluteness.

ken down in respect of rectitude, principle, virtue, or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. Dryden.